Beijing: H E Governor of Qatar Central Bank (QCB) Sheikh Abdullah bin Saud Al Thani met Governor of People’s Bank of China (China’s central bank) Zhou Xiaochuan yesterday here. The meeting was attended by Qatar’s Ambassador in Beijing Sultan bin Salmeen Al Mansouri and the delegation accompanying the QCB governor.
Talks during the meeting dealt with relations between Qatar and China, especially in the fiscal, monetary and investment fields.
The governor arrived in Beijing on Tuesday, heading a financial delegation, on an official visit to China. The delegation includes a number of senior officials from Qatar Central Bank, Qatar Financial Centre (QFC), QFC Regulatory Authority, Qatar Investment Authority, a representative of Qatar Airways and chief executive officers of Islamic banks and Islamic insurance companies operating in Qatar.
The visit is the second of the QCB Governor during the current year. He visited China last April.
Qatar and China are linked with diplomatic relations since 1988. Since then, the two countries signed a number of bilateral agreement foremost of which were: an agreement on trade in 1993, an agreement on the development and protection of investment between the two governments in 1999 and an agreement on the sales and purchase of liquefied natural gas signed between Qatargas and China National Offshore Oil Corporation in 2008.
Trade exchange between the two countries reached $11.5bn in 2013, increasing by 24.2 percent compared to 2012, with Qatari experts hitting $8.8bn, while Qatari imports from China reached $2.7bn. LNG constitutes most of the Qatari exports to China, while Qatari imports from China include building and construction raw materials and electronics. QNA
